What to say at an interview when you left on bad terms?

[dmallind]

5. I would add a couple of points

1) Keep complaints vague and impersonal without complaining about workload - I found phrases like "inconsistent and ill-defined priorities for my role and the whole department/company" and "absence of any real metrics that defined and incentivized high performance" to be useful. That way they know you were interested in priorities and high performance, and you are blaming the whole systems and processes of the company not "the boss" when you are talking to a person who will hopefully become "the boss", and will probably think they have a better system of metrics and planning.

2) If you are likely to get a poor reference, set this up upfront with again impersonal statements like "the company's way of managing uncertainty and change were not conducive to employee success. Communication was poor and erratic (every employee survey at nigh every company says this) and change, instead of being collaborative and positive as in well-managed companies (never badmouth change itself - nobody wants an inflexible worker), was thrown at the wall in the hope it would stick with no real input from or guidance for those affected. It became a very uncomfortable and unproductive environment filled with conflict".

Need to use your own way of speaking of course, not mine!